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Tell Huffington Post to Stop Spreading Misinformation About Pit Bulls
  1. Signatures
    329 out of 500
    Petitioning
    1. Green Editor (Katherine Goldstein)
  2. Created By
    Stephanie Feldstein
    Ypsilanti, MI
About this Petition Petition Letter
How We Won

Mar 05, 2010

Huffington Post has removed pit bulls from the "Dangerous Pets" slideshow! Read about this victory, including the HuffPost Green Editor's statement, here.

Why This Is Important

UPDATE 3/3/10: Katherine Goldstein, HuffPost Green Editor, released the following statement today:

Thanks everyone for your feedback on our photo gallery on dangerous pets. Upon further reflection, we have decided to not include pit bulls in the list. While the information in the caption was not inaccurate, we understand that pit bulls' inclusion may have been out of place within the context of that particular slideshow, which focused on wild animals. We want you to know that the Green section strives to highlight the plight of all kinds of species -  from how animals are affected by climate change to problems of abandoned pets and animal abuse.

Thanks to everyone who sent a letter on behalf of the pit bulls!

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Huffington Post included pit bulls in their list of "When Man's Best Friend is Deadly: 9 Dangerous Pets" alongside tigers, alligators, and other animals "not meant to be domesticated."

Here's what they wrote:

While pit bulls can be warm and make good pets, when trained to fight, their aggression and ferociousness spells trouble when they're provoked. They are responsible for the largest number of (fatal) attacks on humans compared to any other breed. A number of cities have banned pit bulls altogether.

Tell the Huffington Post to apologize for spreading misinformation about pit bulls!

Photo credit: Sparktography

Recent Signatures

Stop Spreading Misinformation About Pit Bulls

Greetings,

I am writing to ask you to apologize for spreading misinformation about pit bulls in the "When Man's Best Friend is Deadly: 9 Dangerous Pets" slideshow by ThienVinh Nguyen, where the dogs were included alongside tigers, alligators, and other animals "often not meant to be domesticated."

In one short paragraph, the Huffington Post made several errors about pit bulls:

1) Pit bulls shouldn't be part of a list of animals "often not meant to be domesticated," since they already are domestic animals, the same as any other breed of dog.

2) Dog aggression and human aggression are separate issues, so a dog trained to fight is not "aggressive" or "ferocious," or even prone to being provoked. In fact, fighting dogs were less likely to bite humans since, traditionally, any dog who would injure his handler in the pit was culled.

3) According to the American Temperament Testing Society, which conducts standardized temperament tests on dogs, pit bulls are no more likely to bite than golden retrievers.

4) The claim that pit bulls are responsible for the largest number of fatal attacks on humans is based on outdated, faulty statistics. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped tracking dog attacks by breed more than 10 years ago because they were not scientific and were not a good basis for public policy. For more information, see http://nationalcanineresearchcouncil.com/dog-bites/dog-bite-studies/

While it's true that "a number of cities have banned pit bulls," this is only proof of bad policy, not bad dogs. Breed specific legislation is costly and has been proven ineffective in reducing dog bite incidents. The responsibility lies with the owner, not any particular breed of dog.

By spreading misinformation about pit bulls, you are only encouraging more bad policy and prejudice against innocent dogs and the people who care about them. Please release an apology for including pit bulls in the list of dangerous pets.

[Your name]